Wnt growth factors are fundamental regulators of cell fate, but how the Wnt signal is translated into biological responses is incompletely understood. Here, we report that TAZ, a biologically potent transcriptional coactivator, serves as a downstream element of the Wnt/β-catenin cascade. This function of TAZ is independent from its well-established role as mediator of Hippo signaling. In the ab...

Accurate retinotectal axon pathfinding depends upon the correct establishment of dorsal-ventral retinal polarity. We show that dorsal retinal gene expression is regulated by Wnt signaling in the dorsal retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). We find that a Wnt reporter transgene and Wnt pathway components are expressed in the dorsal RPE beginning at 14-16 hours post-fertilization. In the absence of W...

Amphibian studies have implicated Wnt signaling in the regulation of mesoderm formation, although direct evidence is lacking. We have characterized the expression of 12 mammalian Wnt-genes, identifying three that are expressed during gastrulation. Only one of these, Wnt-3a, is expressed extensively in cells fated to give rise to embryonic mesoderm, at egg cylinder stages. A likely null allele o...

Extracellular vesicles (EV) are considered as a potential tool for early disease diagnosis; however, factors modifying EV release remain partially unknown. By using patient-derived organoids that capture the cellular heterogeneity of epithelial tissues, here we studied connection between Wnt-producing microniche and secretion in multiple tissues. Although nearly all cells pancreatic ductal (PD)...

It is known that Wnt-1 signaling inhibits apoptosis by activating beta-catenin/tcf-mediated transcription. Here, we show that blocking Wnt-1 signaling in beta-catenin-deficient mesothelioma cell lines H28 and MS-1 induces apoptotic cell death. Both Wnt-1 small interfering RNA (siRNA) and Dishevelled siRNA induced significant apoptosis in these cell lines. A small molecule inhibitor of c-Jun NH(...

Wnt-mediated signal transduction pathways have long been recognized for their roles in regulating embryonic development, and have more recently been linked to cancer, neurologic diseases, inflammatory diseases, and disorders of endocrine function and bone metabolism in adults. Although therapies targeting Wnt signaling are attractive in theory, in practice it has been difficult to obtain specif...

Ehrlichia chaffeensis invades and survives in phagocytes by modulating host cell processes and evading innate defenses, but the mechanisms are not fully defined. Recently we have determined that E. chaffeensis tandem repeat proteins (TRPs) are type 1 secreted effectors involved in functionally diverse interactions with host targets, including components of the evolutionarily conserved Wnt signa...

The long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulating encoding transcripts/genes involved in Wnt signalling pathway in keloids is largely unclear. We used a pathway-focused lncRNA microarray to detect the differentiated expression profiles of both lncRNAs and genes involved in Wnt pathway, thus a total of 116 Wnt-targeted genes and 69 Wnt-related lncRNAs aberrantly expressed in keloids were initially i...

We read with great interest the article by Stewart (1) in the December issue of the Journal. The author gives a useful update of genomic alterations affecting Wnt signaling components that are frequently observed in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and reminds us that Wnt component mutations seen in other cancers such as colon are uncommon in NSCLC. We believe it is necessary to bring further...

BACKGROUND Aberrant activation of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling promotes the development of several cancers. It has been demonstrated that the Wnt signaling pathway is activated in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells, and that uncontrolled Wnt/beta-catenin signaling may contribute to the defect in apoptosis that characterizes this malignancy. Thus, the Wnt signaling pathway is an attractive c...